Utah and all that Jazz.
We’ve survived week 1!
After the day long drive from Las Vegas north, skirting around Salt Lake City to a little beyond Park City we spent a fabulous few days with Bruce’s Dad & Step-Mum, Keith & Amanda (AKA Grandpa & Amanda). Reliably Keith always has red wine on hand and we worked our way through a few bottles of those which helped with the altitude adjustment (for me anyway) and Amanda’s Indian curry was amazing.
Handily they live close-ish to the outlets in Park City where Bruce stocked up on ski gear for the boys. Lyla was good to go early and eager to make snowballs, snowmen and whatever else a super-keen six-year-old does with masses of snow.
Meanwhile, home school started. Ha! A couple of hours on ABC Reading Eggs does not an education make, however its a good start and with the benefit of first hand experience we can discuss different climates from the blazing hot temps of Australia to the freezing Northern Utah winters/springs.
Food - let’s discuss food. Firstly it’s hard to get a decent coffee and I’m not a fan of the filter stuff. I’ve almost taken to carrying around teabags and a thermos (like a good Sydney friend of mine), so at least I have tea. Secondly the portions are enormous, the bread is sweetened and the beer is weak. Although apparently the Guinness is passable.
Before we moved into our Airbnb house in Salt Lake we had a great lunch at the Road Island Diner - an original 1930s New England diner transported across country, a much visited favourite with Tricketts of all ages. Turns out the kids eyes were much too big for their stomachs and the milkshakes did them in. The huge sugar rush was no fun for us either.
After we spent Monday scoping out the skiing lessons & spending a small fortune on passes and hiring of skis etc - the kids are happily on their second day of skiing at Brighton Resort, a thirty-minute drive out of Salt Lake. The snow is plentiful, the food is hot, the energy levels are high and its early nights all round.
Thanks for reading!
Fi, Bruce, Stilts, Thumper-Bumper & Ladybird xx
